CONTINUING....

If you haven't read the first post about Canute and Sarah, (previous post) please do. And before I go any further with this, I have to tell something. I don't like to talk about religion or politics on here. And we can't change what our ancestors did, or didn't do. But religion was a part of this family of mine. You'll learn along the way as I tell stories, I come from a mixture of many. And I love and respect them for following what they believed.

Myself...well, God and I talk quite often. But I don't feel the need to follow any one faith. And God understands that....

Lets see, where was I at midnight....oh yes, little hands......



Canute found a sweet Norwegian woman to care for his mother so he could go find work. At 12, it wasn't unheard of back then. He found he could make the best wages working for farmers. So he broke prairie sod in the summer and ran a thrashing machine through the fall and winter harvests. Sometimes on the weekends he would walk home, taking most of the night.


But he felt a close responsibility for his mother and felt just a few hours with her was worth it. And he was careful with his money, determined to pay their immigration debt. Even with his first meager earning of $6 a month, (can you imagine...) he managed to support his mother and pay off the $400 debt by the time he was 17. That's also the time he made a life changing decision...
He became a Mormon...

 

So did some of the others living in the little Scandinavian settlement, including his mother and his childhood friend Sarah Ann, now 14. But her family didn't. They were strict Quakers and kept to that Faith. Yet her mother allowed Sarah to make her own decision.

A little about Sarah. At 17 she taught school and was loved by her students, some of them being as old as she was. It's said she was the first known Norwegian school teacher in America. (you know how family stories go...) She had been raised to be a dutiful daughter and respected her mother and family very much. But she also knew by being a Mormon, who were persecuted for their beliefs, she may have to leave them someday. Sarah was the only daughter and very close to her mother, especially since her fathers death.

At this time, Canute and some friends had gone to Nauvoo Illinois and were helping build a Temple there. If anyone knows the history of this religion, you know the men went on missions and Canute did too, in Wisconsin for awhile. Then returned home to hear of plans to leave and go west to the

Rocky Mountains. 

 

But with his mothers health deteriorating, he stayed on and worked in the sod and ran the threshing machine. Then he got a team of horses and a wagon and hauled freight between Ottowa and Chicago. In the fall of that year he traded his team for forty acres of land, later selling it to get him an outfit to someday head to Utah. Then he worked for awhile hauling lumber from a sawmill in Ottowa. Too bad some of these 'Genes' didn't get to me. I'm all tuckered out just telling this...

One summer day, when he was 24 years old, a friend came to tell him his mother had just passed away. He got right on a horse and headed home. He was grief stricken but was told she died peacefully. In fact, that morning, one of her friends taking care of her had a feeling her time for 'departure' had come. But Herborg said "No, I'm neither sick enough or lucky enough for that to happen..." 

After eating breakfast, she wanted to nap....

So, feeling very much alone now, Canute decided it was time to head to Utah, and began making arrangements. In April, 1847, he and a company of six wagons and 22 people headed West. Among them were some lifelong friends, 

including Sarah Ann Nelson...

To Be Continued.....

And I'll be back again Yesterday

~Vicki~

Now, please go see what I left for you 

on the other blog... 

You'll be glad you did....